Been offered a job!
Author
Discussion

BruceV8

Original Poster:

3,325 posts

276 months

Monday 11th June 2012
quotequote all
As some of you know, I left the army nearly a year ago and have been self employed doing two different things. One is buying and selling cars, the other is freelance training and consultancy work related to my military trade. Both had had their ups and downs which I expected.

In a particularly dry period I applied for a few jobs and have been offered one of them - which is also related to what I did in the army. Its interesting work but its not the best paid thing in the world - I can live on it. But at the same time the freelance training work has picked up a bit. I'm involved in a good project now and there may be more in the pipeline. The car thing has been pretty quiet since Christmas though.

So I'm going to take the job. I won't make the money that I could potentially make on the circuit but the most important thing now is the peace of mind that I can pay the bills. I'll carry on doing the cars part time and I'll also take whatever freelance work I can fit around the day job.

This will be my first job with a civilian organisation, albeit in the defence sector. In the army I changed postings every few years so I'm happy with change but it was usually within a familiar context. All you people who have been in the 'real world' for years. What happens when you start with a new employer? What is your first day like? What pitfalls do I need to avoid? Got any amusing 'noob' stories?

Burrow01

1,983 posts

221 months

Monday 11th June 2012
quotequote all
I think one of the specific things that the military gets you used to is changing jobs / environments.

In the military you can be moved from one country to another, from your current role to a completely different one, and from one level of responsibility to another, at short notice, and be expected to pick everything up quickly.

You will not have any problems with a new job, even if the organisation is not familiar, as adapting will be something you do naturally

Its civilians who expect everything to be the same everywhere :-)

Good luck with it

No interesting first day stories, apart from switching on my PC on the first day and finding everything was in Dutch ( this was in Holland, but even the Dutch guys working on the job were complaining that it should be in English wink )

blueheron

461 posts

174 months

Monday 11th June 2012
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My first day in a new job has mainly been induction based paperwork and things. E.g. Manager takes you on a tour of the premises, meet your new team, be shown the fire muster points, get ID badge sorted out..

Then there's being set up on the PC systems (IT usually will have your logon and stuff done already), some online based training/reading of handbook..

Work-wise i've been shown a few things at a time, then a colleague or line manager has explained how to do it.

I've only really done office jobs, so your mileage may vary..

98elise

32,494 posts

190 months

Tuesday 12th June 2012
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Don't salute anyone, you will look like a tt! smile